New Middle East virus spread in hospitals

[titsonritz]

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/new-middle-east-virus-spread-hospitals-6C10378925

This sort of stuff creeps me out, this ones origin creeps me out more.

[Sensei]

Hmmm....greater than a 50% case fatality rate. The Machiavellian side of me thinks that it just may be the answer to our ME problem. :eek:

[Moose-Knuckle]

Coronavirus.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/28/health/france-coronavirus-death

[jwfuhrman]

We have to take off and nuke the site from orbit. Its the only way to be sure.

[jared91]

Its like that brad thor book almost

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[austinN4]

This is how World War Z started.

[Todd00000]

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/new-middle-east-virus-spread-hospitals-6C10378925

This sort of stuff creeps me out, this ones origin creeps me out more.

I wish these articles would say what part of SA the cases are in. See my location.

[markm]

We need idiots to fly over there and come back contageous STAT!

And allow thousands of these animals to immigrate here too... naturally! :)

[Spiffums]

I'm pretty sure it's a lack of a vital protein know as PORK! :lol:

[jpmuscle]

I'm pretty sure it's a lack of a vital protein know as PORK! :lol:

Them porking goats don't count?? :lol::lol:

[Moose-Knuckle]

I wish these articles would say what part of SA the cases are in. See my location.

The CNN vid in my link shows that some of the patients are at Al Moosa Gen. Hospital, I belive that is in the city of Al Mubarraz.

[Todd00000]

The CNN vid in my link shows that some of the patients are at Al Moosa Gen. Hospital, I belive that is in the city of Al Mubarraz.

Thanks, far away from me.

[SteveS]

Weaponized virus??? Could that be why we are somewhat pulling out of the middle east and moving to Africa?

[Sensei]

Weaponized virus??? Could that be why we are somewhat pulling out of the middle east and moving to Africa?

Very, very unlikely. Outbreaks of respiratory illness from Coronavirus are not uncommon and due to large genome (29-30 kB) and the high mutation rate of 1 per 10,000 nucleotides. This also makes it a crappy weapon candidate.

[montanadave]

A recent article from Foreign Policy on the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and the very real possibility of a potential epidemic associated with the upcoming haj:

"This fall, millions of devout Muslims will descend upon Mecca, Medina, and Saudi Arabia's holy sites in one of the largest annual migrations in human history. In 2012, approximately 6 million pilgrims came through Saudi Arabia to perform the rituals associated with umrah, and this number is predicted to rise in 2013. Umrah literally means "to visit a populated place," and it's the very proximity that has health officials so worried. In Mecca alone, millions of pilgrims will fulfill the religious obligation of circling the Kaaba. And having a large group of people together in a single, fairly confined space threatens to turn the holiest site in Islam into a massive petri dish." (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/06/28/the_middle_east_plague_goes_global?page=0,2)

I think we tend to adopt a bit of a "little boy who cried wolf" attitude with respect to these regular warnings of another potential global pandemic, but one of these days ...

[dookie1481]

Very, very unlikely. Outbreaks of respiratory illness from Coronavirus are not uncommon and due to large genome (29-30 kB) and the high mutation rate of 1 per 10,000 nucleotides. This also makes it a crappy weapon candidate.

Would you mind describing how genome size affects infection rate or whatever the applicable term is? This is interesting to me.

[Mac5.56]

Corona viruses are relatively common in nature as I have been told, but this one does seem to have a high fatality rate.

I'm just glad we have scientists educated in the scientific process who understand the theory of evolution and work thanklessly every day to help us all survive these kinds of outbreaks.

[Sensei]

Would you mind describing how genome size affects infection rate or whatever the applicable term is? This is interesting to me.

In layman's terms, viruses mutate by chaning their genome which sometimes alters their outward appearance to our immune system. Although our immune system has some "memory" to viruses that it has seen in the past, mutations in the genome make the virus seem new to our bodies. Thus, we are less protected by previous immunity to these mutated viruses.

The genome is the genetic code of the virus which determines the outward appearance of the virus. A large genetic code coupled with a high mutation rate means that mutations are very likely from one generation to the next. For example, the coronavirus has a code that spans about 30,000 base pairs. We know that mutations occur every 10,000 base pairs per generation, so there will be about 3 base pairs that change (mutate) per replication. In addition RNA viruses use polymerases that have no proof reading capability to replicate, so there is no means to prevent these mutations during replication.

[dookie1481]

In layman's terms, viruses mutate by chaning their genome which sometimes alters their outward appearance to our immune system. Although our immune system has some "memory" to viruses that it has seen in the past, mutations in the genome make the virus seem new to our bodies. Thus, we are less protected by previous immunity to these mutated viruses.

The genome is the genetic code of the virus which determines the outward appearance of the virus. A large genetic code coupled with a high mutation rate means that mutations are very likely from one generation to the next. For example, the coronavirus has a code that spans about 30,000 base pairs. We know that mutations occur every 10,000 base pairs per generation, so there will be about 3 base pairs that change (mutate) per replication. In addition RNA viruses use polymerases that have no proof reading capability to replicate, so there is no means to prevent these mutations during replication.

Cool, thanks. I actually remembered that last part from a biology class :cool: